The
Institute of Childcare and Social Education
1
The Institute was set up to encourage high standards of services
for children and young people, and in particular those with social,
emotional and physical needs. It has campaigned for the universal
registration for people working with children and young people,
and it has published professional material, establishing the first
international web magazine concerning children and young people
to spread sound professional thinking.
2
The Institute is pleased to have the opportunity to contribute
a response to the Green Paper, as it is timely that the role of
children and young people in society should be given greater recognition,
and it is necessary that their needs should be addressed fundamentally
at this point.
General
3
The Green Paper contains a large number of proposals which are
excellent. We support, for instance, the Government’s approach
of taking a broad view of children’s needs, as evidenced
in the five key outcomes (1.3), and placing the requirements of
children with special needs within this wider context. Policy
in this country has in the past frequently been developed in response
to crises and scandals, and this has developed a pathological
approach which has focused primarily on children’s problems,
rather than on their strengths and their normal developmental
needs.
4
The ICSE is also pleased to note that the needs of the workforce
are receiving consideration. This is particularly important as
the success of education, social education and childcare is totally
reliant upon the skills and commitment of the people working with
children. It is of course important to have sound legislation,
systems and processes, but without a properly motivated workforce,
all these measures will be ineffective.
5
It will be appreciated, however, that this response will focus
on areas of concern, rather than the points of which the ICSE
approves. The response consists of :
(a)
responses to questions listed in the text;
(b) comments on the text of the Green Paper;
(c) other observations, for example on omissions and issues of
principle.
We
have only commented on issues where we believe we can make constructive
contributions.
Responses to Questions
p.
37 Clusters of Schools
6
We were surprised to see no mention of childminding in the Green
Paper. (It is not clear whether they are included in the figures
in para. 2.8 and the chart on p. 84.) At any one time there are
nearly 300,000 children in the care of about 90,000 childminders,
and if a clustering system is to be developed to create effective
local networks, it will need to incorporate all major forms of
service for children and young people. In recent years measures
developed both by the last Conservative Government and the current
Government have tended to encourage parents to send young children
to nursery schools and nursery classes rather than match the type
of service to the child. Each type of provision offers different
blends of education, social and personal care and play opportunities,
and young children should be offered the type of provision required
to match their level of maturity and other needs. We believe that
legislation should create a level playing field in this respect.
p.
49 Social Services Decision-making with a view to Permanence
7
The key factor in decision-making is that the views of the children
and their families should be respected. This does not mean that
everything they ask for has to be granted, but their opinions
have to be listened to and taken seriously. Even children who
have been removed from home for several years often return to
their parents on leaving care or they turn to a relative whom
they consider dependable. Careful work in evaluating options before
decisions are taken may save considerable suffering on the part
of the children and waste of public resources over many years.
8
The fashion in social work over the last thirty years has been
to assess children’s needs, arrange packages of care and
close cases as quickly as possible, in order to maintain manageable
case-loads and avoid the massive numbers of cases previously carried
by child care officers. One of the outcomes has been an over-emphasis
on short-termism. If the nation is to invest in its children,
it needs to have a long-term view, considering their potential
as adults as well as addressing their immediate needs. This will
entail a fundamental shift of philosophy, and it is noticeable
that the major crises and tragedies, such as Victoria Climbie’s,
often occur in services where there are high staff turnover rates
and an absence of consistent long-term supervision.
p.
49 The Families of Offenders
9
Prison sentences obviously disrupt family life. Even short sentences
can lead to offenders losing jobs and accommodation and break
up their relationships. Where sentences are short, consideration
should be given to part-time penalties such as weekend prison,
so that jobs can be retained.
10
In the case of those with longer sentences, a major problem is
that of the movement of prisoners, which makes visiting and the
maintenance of meaningful contact with families very difficult.
While there are clearly issues of security which cannot be ignored,
prison visiting is generally an unhappy experience for partners
and children, and needs to be reviewed.
11
The price of imprisonment is paid by the prisoners’ families,
and if further offending is to be reduced, the prisoners need
to be re-integrated into society and encouraged to play acceptable
roles. This entails the availability of employment, accommodation
and social relationships for ex-prisoners. Families can therefore
play a major role in reducing further offending by enabling ex-prisoners
to play valued roles in society on their release, and it is in
the interests of society as a whole - let alone the prisoners’
children - that links should be maintained.
p.
65 The Sharing of Information
12
A common approach should be taken to the sharing of information.
The medical profession was founded before social work, and it
established an ethic of professional confidentiality which was
appropriate in the days when there were no other professionals
with whom they needed to collaborate. Social work, like many other
professions allied to medicine, has grown up at a time when collaboration
between professions has been important. However, there is no intrinsic
reason why medical information should be seen as more confidential
than the personal data which other professions deal with. In all
cases, information should only be shared when it is in the interests
of the data subject.
p.80
Funding of Services
13
Over recent years there have been many new sources of funding,
pilot schemes and partnership arrangements. The situation is now
extremely complex, and much staff time is entailed in accessing
funds. This in itself is a waste of resources, and any measure
which simplifies these systems should be encouraged.
p.
80 Involving Children in Local Decision-making
14
We are aware that there is a campaign to obtain the vote for young
people aged 16 or over, and we would support it. However, of greater
importance than simply enlarging the electorate is encouraging
the electorate to value the opportunity to vote. This, of course,
is a wider issue for the electorate as a whole, but as far as
young people are concerned, consideration should be given to the
right to vote being conditional upon an expressed wish to vote,
together with an assessment of the applicants’ understanding
of democratic processes, so that achievement of the right to vote
is seen as something positive to be earned and valued.
15
We understand that in France a modest budget is set aside in each
town which is put under the control of the local children’s
council. This is an idea worth considering also in England. The
budget would need to be sufficient to allow for projects of real
value to be undertaken.
16
It should not be assumed that children and young people only have
an interest in matters that affect them directly, and it will
encourage them to feel they have a stake in the wider society
if they are consulted and involved in debates on all aspects of
concern to the community.
p.
80 The Integration of Inspections
17
Quality assurance is important, and we accept the need for the
inspection of services. However, the following considerations
need to be borne in mind in devising the overall inspection framework
:
(a)
Every inspection entails hidden costs in the work that has to
be undertaken by staff in participating in the inspection process,
responding to the findings, and implementing requirements which
may have agency-wide consequences. These costs are absorbed, or
result in staff time being deflected from childcare. Indeed, we
would recommend that a study should be undertaken to assess the
amount of staff time taken by quality assurance systems of all
sorts, in order to ensure that value is obtained for the cost
of these exercises.
(b)
Inspecting agencies sometimes work to different agendas and may
give conflicting recommendations. In most cases, the recommendations
which are applied are those which are specific, and social care
concerns tend to lose out (for example in the application of fire
precautions making premises unhomely or environmental health requirements
preventing children from participating in cooking).
(c)
The inspection processes which are used carry messages to the
service providers, and there is a risk that in emphasising the
need to meet requirements, risk-taking and experimentation in
finding new imaginative ways of meeting children’s needs
will be avoided.
(d)
It is very rare that a formal inspection process uncovers serious
shortfalls. (They usually come to light when disaffected staff
or children’s families complain.) The main benefits of formal
inspections are the setting of explicit standards, the checking
that such standards are being met at the time of the inspections,
and the creation of links with staff and children so that they
know there is someone reliable to turn to in the event of problems.
(e)
If inspectors are of the required calibre to undertake the job,
it is a waste of their talents if they do not also advise on ways
in which the services may be improved, however good the provision
is. In the case of advice to good service providers, it should,
of course, not be seen as constituting formal requirements.
p.
100 The Reform of the Workforce
18
Unlike the major professions, such as teaching or medicine, there
is no overall identity in England for people who work with children
and young people in need. In continental Europe there are professions
usually known as social education or social pedagogy which cover
a wide range of the people who work directly with children and
young people in all types of setting, and who use those settings
to help children resolve their problems and develop.
19
In the professions concerning children and young people in this
country, workers are first and foremost specialists - a nanny,
a youth worker, a residential social worker or a childminder,
for example. This contrasts with other professions, where one
is, for instance, first and foremost a teacher, who secondarily
specialises in teaching infants or German or whatever.
20
It is our view that England would do well to follow the lead of
continental Europe on this issue, and that a common overall identity,
re-inforced by shared core training, would do much for the morale
of people working in this field. To avoid misunderstanding of
the word pedagogy, we suggest that the profession should be known
as social education.
21
Over the last twenty years there has been little encouragement
on the part of the Government for people working with children
and young people to develop links with other countries, and England
has got out of step. There are developments taking place to ensure
consistency between qualifications in social education / pedagogy
within the European Union which will leave England’s existing
system awkwardly placed when compliance is required.
22
Examination of the career patterns of people who work with children
and young people indicates that they frequently move between different
settings to jobs which have different titles from those for which
they were trained. A coherent training system covering the whole
social education profession could ensure higher levels of training
for those who move in this way.
23
If social education is recognised as the overall profession for
people working directly with children and young people (excepting
those in established professions), specialist training will of
course still be needed to reflect different age groups within
childhood and work in different settings.
24
Many of the issues concerning pay, support and management were
addressed in the Howe Report, which established proper levels
and standards for residential staff in local government. Unfortunately,
the findings were immediately undermined by the privatisation
of the services as authorities attempted to keep costs down. The
Government will need to ensure that measures taken to attract
and retain good workers in this field are not subjected to unforeseen
factors which undermine their implementation.
25
As noted above, a key factor in this type of work is the maintenance
of morale. Even with poor resources, committed and enthusiastic
staff can achieve miracles, while well-resourced but unmotivated
staff can do harm. This is not an argument for under-resourcing,
but it simply underlines the importance of staff motivation, values
and attitudes. If any of the systems (training, registration,
inspection etc.) undermine staff morale, they do harm to the children
and young people. Care needs to be taken therefore to test these
systems against this criterion.
26
Accountability and integration are vital components in establishing
a joined-up,
regulated and professional care service. As yet the care service
is a long way from achieving these aims. At present we still have
a service that is made up of a number of professional groups that
are both qualified and unqualified, and that hold on to their
professional identities and often have no understanding of each
other's roles and areas of expertise.
27
The GSCC are still in the early days of registering workers and
it will be some time before there is a fully regulated service.
There will therefore be a two-tier system, which will be flawed
until there is full implementation. While there is still a fractured
service without one overall governing body giving leadership to
all workers, accountability and integration nationally will not
be achieved. Reform will not be achieved unless all workers feel
that they have ownership of the process and are part of a cohesive
care service.
Comments on the Text
Executive
Summary Para. 17 Minister for Children, Young People and Families
28
There are those who would argue that the integration of services
for children and young people and their families should have happened
over fifty years ago, when the responsibility for services for
children with social and other needs were split off from mainstream
education under the Children Act 1948. It is argued that, while
this led to a proper focus on the needs of children, it also rendered
the services problem-focused, rather than holistic, and it fostered
the assumption among some educationists that children with problems
and needs were somehow abnormal and should be passed over to Children’s
Departments, leaving the schools to provide schooling.
29
We support a holistic approach, and in the long run, we believe
it will be better both for schools and for special services. However,
the split has existed for so long that there are those who question
whether these services can work successfully under the DfES, in
view of their lack of the background expertise which they require
to act as the umbrella organization overseeing their practice.
It is our view that a fundamental change in philosophy will be
needed throughout the education system in order for the integration
to be successful.
Para.
1.8 Government Initiatives
30
The record of this Government in developing initiatives to help
children has been quite outstanding. There is clearly still a
long way to go, but the resources and creative ideas put into
developing services have been commendable.
Para.
2.12 Truancy Sweeps
31
We are uneasy about the implications of truancy sweeps. If education
were seen as attractive and valuable, such sweeps would not be
necessary. Questions therefore need to be asked about the quality
and perceived relevance of the education on offer. Furthermore,
adult working patterns are quite different, and if children’s
schooling were modelled on adult work (for which it is presumably
meant to be a preparation), children would be free to take days
off within their contracts of employment. Until these bigger philosophical
questions are addressed, truancy sweeps can only be seen as a
form of coercion to ensure conformity and reduce offending. We
support the aim of reducing offending, but would not want coercive
measures to be seen as a substitute for improved teaching and
a more relevant curriculum.
Para.
2.20 Extended Schools
32
Whilst we are totally in support of this initiative, we have a
concern over the staffing of
extended schools. Quite clearly these schools will need to be
adequately staffed. The staff will need to be experienced and
able to cope with a wide variety of scenarios and problems that
the children may bring to school. Staff offering social care will
be faced with many of the complex issues that social workers and
residential care workers have to deal with on a daily basis.
33
A recruitment drive will be needed which gives a true picture
of what being a care worker really entails. For this initiative
to offer safe and sound provision, the Government will need to
draw on the experiences of residential workers and social workers,
provide accurate information when recruiting and provide thorough
and rigorous training.
Para.
2.46 Family Treatment Units
34
It is our experience that residential family treatment units can
provide a holistic approach to the problems experienced by families,
providing accommodation, helping to deal with financial problems
such as rent arrears, offering counselling at points of crisis
(not just in office hours) and helping with childcare advice and
practical help. Such centres can be highly cost-effective in dealing
with families with major problems.
Para.
3.3 School-based Services
35
We support the Government’s intention to base services on
schools for two reasons :
(a)
For most parents schools provide an acceptable basis for delivering
other services which they might consider stigmatising.
(b)
It will broaden the roles of schools and free them of limiting
constraints if they can be seen as centres of life-long learning
which are of help to their communities as a whole.
Para.
3.8 Parents with Disabled Children
36
Acting as an employer is a complex business, and many people are
unhappy to take on the role of employer. Among other things, it
clouds the relationship between parents and their auxiliary helpers,
which needs to be a co-operative partnership. It may be that voluntary
bodies could act as employers on behalf of parents.
Para.
3.15 Children’s Needs
37
Ideally, every child should have a loving family, but a significant
proportion of young people requiring extra-familial care do not
want to have to face living within the constraints of a family,
and if this paragraph is intended to argue for a generalised preference
for adoption or fostercare as against residential care, it is
based on false premises.
Para.
3.26 Residential Care
38
It is our view that this reference to residential care is bald
and negative. There are good residential services which provide
placements of choice for children and young people. Over recent
decades, despite arguments to the contrary in documents such as
the Wagner Report, it has been fashionable to criticise residential
child care, and in consequence it has often been neglected and
under-resourced, and staff have been inadequately trained.
39
There are signs that picture is changing, as the recent National
Children’s Bureau research suggests, but further encouragement
and support are needed if children are to get the services they
need. It is time to talk up residential child care, rather than
approach it negatively. If it is of good quality, it has much
to offer children and young people, and can transform their lives.
Para.
4.3 Common Information Systems
40
The concept of establishing an all-embracing information system
is attractive for a number of reasons, but in view of the failure
of recent national computer schemes to deliver sound information
and meet time targets, we believe that in this respect the Government
should make haste slowly. It is necessary to debate the information
required and any problems which the system might face ethically
or technically, so that when it is set up, it will have the support
and understanding of all those who will be involved in making
it work. Otherwise there is a real danger that it could become
a fiasco, which would discredit the concept and set back its development.
Para.
4.3 Flagging
41
There is also an argument for flagging the records of abusive
adults.
Para.
4.4 Professional and Cultural Barriers
42
Research has indicated that professionals often put enormous energy
into preserving their territories, and in forming alliances with
other professions against third parties. While the Green Paper
also refers to legal and technical barriers, the question of motivation
is the most important. Good collaboration with a view to meeting
children’s needs has to be seen by all the professionals
involved as more rewarding than fighting to defend territory.
To achieve this will be very difficult, but it is likely to be
the biggest determinant of success.
43
A major problem in collaboration between professions is that participants
in meetings often have differing status and authority within their
services. For example, in Area Child Protection Committees, the
police representative may be a specialist middle-ranking officer
seconded to this field for three years, the social work representative
may be a principal officer within the social services hierarchy
who has specialised in this field for many years, the general
practitioner may be the only one in the area prepared to put time
into participating in the ACPC and having no authority to speak
for his peers, while the health visitor may have been delegated
to attend and may carry other responsibilities. Such a system
- or its replacement - will only knit together the services represented
with a lot of hard work. Simply making the body statutory will
not solve the disjunctions between professions.
Para.
4.21 Terminology
44
There is possibly some looseness of terminology here. The paragraph
refers to a lead professional role and to a keyworker, which appear
to be interchangeable terms. It might be helpful to maintain the
lead professional term as described here, and limit keyworker
to the role of the person within each participating service who
has a special interest in, or responsibility for, a child. For
example, a social worker might be the lead professional for a
child who attends a day nursery where one of the nursery staff
is the keyworker within the nursery staff team.
Para.
5.1 Overlap
45
The problem described here is well-known, and is partly one of
language. If a child’s problems are described in medical
or educational terms, the associated solutions will follow, and
the type of service offered will reflect the initial assessment.
A common language is needed to ease this problem, perhaps created
through shared training.
Para.
5.6 Vision
46
The logic of this vision is that services for children and young
people should be administered as independent agencies and become
entirely independent of local authorities. Where an agency such
as a local authority has multiple responsibilities it has to prioritise,
and some of its responsibilities are subordinated to others. At
times, local authority children’s services have been subordinated
to other pressing needs. This can only be avoided if agencies
have single purposes.
47
The fundamental problem is that there appears to be no coherent
rationale for the organisation of services nationally, regionally
and locally. Until this is resolved, arrangements are likely to
be pragmatic compromises of the sort outlined here.
Para.
5.2 Holistic Responses
48
We are very supportive of a holistic approach to children’s
needs. The question is whether meeting the identified needs will
be properly funded.
Para.
5.3 Restructuring
49
It remains to be seen whether restructuring will be effective.
There are those who argue that the combined structures being set
up now should have been introduced in 1948, rather than separate
Children’s Departments. There are also those who believe
that the Barclay Report’s vision of localised community
services for all people in need would provide a stronger basis
than specialist children’s services. We accept that the
Government is heading in the direction of specialist children’s
services, but we remain sceptical about the value of any re-organisation.
50
For decades Governments appear to have been oblivious to the damage
caused by restructuring, as the history of the National Health
Service has shown, and there remains a belief that reshaping services
structurally will improve matters. Restructuring tends to absorb
the energies of the professionals affected for a substantial period,
it results in the early retirement of senior professionals, and
it is usually highly disruptive, as new structures, systems and
policies are introduced. Worst of all, it is the service users
who end up as the casualties. The Government would do well to
research the impact of the changes on service users in this respect.
Para.
5.8 Directors of Children’s Services
51
In considering candidates for the posts of Director of Children's
Services, it will be important to ensure that the process is seen
as the creation of a new service, and not a take-over of one service
by another, either locally or nationally. Otherwise, where the
Director has a background in either education or social services,
there could be a conflict of traditional loyalties, and a section
of the new multi-disciplinary team could have problems identifying
with the management. Equally, at national level, confidence in
the aim of interprofessional partnership and multi-disciplinary
working would be undermined by excessive representation at senior
level by any one professional group.
Para.
5.11 Lead Councillors
52
Lead Council Members must have a sound understanding and knowledge
of the services for which they will be responsible, and to ensure
a consistent approach to the implementation of legislation across
the country, they will require training, organised nationally,
and a system offering support and co-ordination thereafter.
Para.
5.38 Star Ratings
53
The system described in this paragraph is sterile. Star ratings
cannot reflect all aspects of the work of large workforces, and
they are judgements that relate only to a single point in time,
in themselves offering no real help in telling people how to improve.
Workers simply feel undermined if they have a low score, or praised
if they have a high one. It is of much greater help if organisations
- however good or bad they are - can be helped to understand how
to improve their practice. This is an ongoing process that never
ends, and relates to the reality of service-providing with all
its ups and downs.
Para.6.8
Social Work Time
54
We have been informed that the amount of time spent by social
workers in direct client contact is 13 - 16% of the full working
time. We recommend that research is undertaken to calculate the
amount of time spent on key elements of the work (client contact,
training, administration, quality assurance etc.) by all main
groups working with children and young people. We suspect that
considerable savings could be made by simplifying planning processes,
funding streams, record-keeping and inspection methods, so that
they entail less staff time. The proportion of total staff time
spent in face to face contact with clients could be used as a
key performance indicator.
Para.
6.8 Housing
55
If assistance with housing were provided in areas where it is
expensive, this could be of great assistance in the recruitment
and retention of staff.
Para.
6.16 Registration of Workforce
56
At present the workforce is in the main unregistered and therefore
unregulated. It is fractured into a number of different job types,
which are treated differently and are overseen by a number of
governing bodies, professional associations, and trades unions.
The General Social Care Council has started to make inroads to
developing a regulated and uniform care service, but they are
still a long way off from achieving this, and even viewing the
situation optimistically, it would seem likely that it will take
more than a decade to register the current workforce. Till the
work is complete, there is the risk that incompetent practitioners
and abusers will move to unregulated areas, and it is our view
that finance needs to be made available to accelerate the process.
Para.
6.30 Recruitment Campaign
57
We support the establishment of a recruitment campaign, but attempts
so far have to advertise for care workers have been at best pathetic
and at worst dangerously misleading. Rather than depicting a job
that requires knowledge, understanding, expertise, the ability
to manage extremely stressful situations and a high degree of
professional practice, they have given the impression that as
long as you can make paper hats and play party games you can become
a care worker, hardly a way of portraying an "attractive
and high status career".
Para.
6.41 Staff Training
58
It is noted that of the six core components of training, only
the last one relates to the task of working directly with children
and young people. It would be possible to have an academic understanding
of the first five elements and be incompetent as a practitioner.
The sixth rightly refers to listening to children and young people,
but the phrase involving them is too weak to cover all the aspects
of communication, shared activities, group work, personal care
and counselling which it needs to cover.
59
The essential aspect of good training for people working with
children and young people is that it needs to be a combination
of theory and practice, so that each informs the other. Theory
which cannot be applied in practice is useless, and practice uninformed
by theory risks being uninformed and ill-considered. The key to
good training, therefore, is that those teaching academic subjects
need a good grounding in practice, and practice teachers need
to be able to articulate relevant theory.
Other Observations
Attitudes
towards Children
60
We are concerned that in the country as a whole there is often
a sentimentalised attitude towards little children, who are seen
as vulnerable and in need of protection, and a hypercritical demonising
approach towards teenagers, who are seen as threatening and antisocial.
These stances have been evidenced also in Government initiatives.
61
It is our view that children and young people should be treated
with respect, and that they in turn should be expected to treat
other members of society with respect. When these expectations
have been established, it will be possible to form realistic views
of the groups which make up society, rather than the harmful images
which are currently prevalent. The Government should take a lead
on this matter in establishing respect, rather than by playing
to the emotions.
Juvenile
Justice
62
It is our view that the omission of juvenile justice from the
Green Paper is a fundamental mistake. Young people who offend
are still subject to the Children Act 1989, as the recent case
brought by the Howard League demonstrated. It is our view that
all services for children and young people should be considered
as a whole.
63
This would mean, for example, that Children’s Boards should
be required to pay for young offenders placed in penal establishments.
Financial responsibility would be an incentive to develop measures
to reduce juvenile offending, and prevent the off-loading of offenders
onto the penal system.
A
Wider Debate Needed
64
The Green Paper has made a useful contribution to discussion of
issues which affect children and young people, and it has been
helpful to focus on their key outcomes, as well as the legislative
and administrative structures required to respond to Lord Laming’s
report. However, the Green Paper betrays a gap between the statement
of general concepts and the specific measures proposed. We see
this Paper as only the beginning of a much bigger debate which
is needed in order to reconsider the role of children and young
people in society.
65
We live in a mobile society, which is largely stratified by age.
Is this what we want? Is it an effective way to bring up children?
Could new technology be used to reshape the education system fundamentally?
Is the current pattern of education relevant to the twenty-first
century? What type of society and work patterns are we preparing
children for? Should children and young people have a greater
say in decision-making? Can we re-engender interest in democratic
processes among young people? How can we best support families
in bringing up children?
53
There are so many fundamental questions relating to the roles
of children and young people in today’s society that we
recommend the establishment of a Royal Commission as a focus for
a major national consideration of the subject. The initiatives
taken by the Government have been of great benefit to children
and their families, but it is now time to take stock and ensure
that these measures are being effective, and to do that, it is
necessary to be clear about the criteria by which success is to
be judged. As part of this process, the Green Paper has fulfilled
a useful function, but it should not be seen as the end of the
debate.
References
?
(known as the Howe Report)
A local government working party report which analysed the nature
of the residential task, and examined support structures such
as the pay and management of residential staff.
A
Positive Choice (known as the Wagner Report) (1988) HMSO
A working party report which addressed current concerns about
residential care and which argued that it should be viewed positively.
Social
Workers : Their Roles and Tasks (known as the Barclay Report)
(1982) Bedford Square Press
Still the most recent report on the nature of social work, in
which the majority report argued for the development of community
social work,
Better
than you think (2003) National Children’s Bureau
Recent research which examined the residential childcare workforce
morale, turnover and other factors.
A
Golden Opportunity (c. 2000) The Residential Forum (obtainable
from the Social Care Association)
A fundamental analysis of the rationale and content of training
for residential child care workers
The
Radisson Report (2000) The Social Education Trust
An analysis of the concepts entailed in social education and social
pedagogy which advocates their adoption in this country.
